Jim Flaherty remembered as ‘down to Earth’ by mourners at Whitby visitation

WHITBY, Ont. — John Dolstra’s eyes filled with tears. He can’t believe it, still doesn’t want to accept it and didn’t know quite what to say Tuesday, because it is “too awful.”

He was standing outside the Abilities Centre in Whitby, Ont., in a bitter April wind, while his old friend Jim Flaherty, the former finance minister, the respected statesman, the scrappy Irishman, was lying inside in a casket.

Dead at 64, of a massive heart attack, dead less than a month after leaving cabinet — just as his life after politics was beginning.

“Jim could always make me laugh,” Mr. Dolstra says. “I had lunch with him four weeks ago and I can’t believe he is gone. He was looking forward to the rest of his life.”

Tuesday’s visitation was held at the all-access facility Mr. Flaherty and his wife, Christine Elliott, a Tory MPP for Whitby-Oshawa, championed. There is a track, weight rooms, a theatre, a library, three basketball courts — and an inclusive atmosphere.

On this day the centre was a place of mourning.

Thousands came out, including such well-known public figures as Mark Carney,the former Bank of Canada governor; Lisa Raitt, the minister of transport; Dr. Kellie Leitch, the minister of labour and the status of women who performed CPR on her colleague and close friend in the moments before he died; and Rob Ford, the disgraced Toronto mayor, who considered Mr. Flaherty a mentor.

But there were also scores of elderly ladies in quilted down coats, teens in boxy-looking suits that didn’t quite fit, military veterans and sad-eyed men who didn’t really know “their Jim” much, but knew him as someone who would stop to say hello in the street. He lined up at the diner for a table, at the drug store for a prescription, at the barber shop to get a haircut and at the bank, never playing the big shot card, even though he could have.

“You look at all his successes, politically, the world scope, but he was just this normal guy,” says Maureen Moloney, a neighbour. “The smile, that is how we remember him. People are so upset because he could make them laugh. He was part of the Whitby family.”

The “family” was out in force. Locals stood in line for hours to get into the banquet room, where Mr. Flaherty’s coffin sat, draped in a Canadian flag, flanked by two Mounties in full dress uniform, with his widow and their triplet boys, John, Galen and Quinn, standing nearby.

Irish ditties played softly in the background. People kept coming. Many of the men wore green ties. Some women wore green dresses. Ms. Moloney sported shamrock earrings and a shamrock scarf.

There were six condolences books. They weren’t going to be enough.

There were photos, too, of a smiling Mr. Flaherty — in a green tie — and a video loop playing on a big screen of Mr. Flaherty, the politician, in action, shaking hands with his boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“What I liked about Jim, and I know he was a politician, but he was for the people first,” says Pat Odgers, 67.

Ms. Odgers had a stroke four years ago. She walks with a cane and typically comes to the centre for therapy sessions.

Chris Alexander, Conservative MP for Ajax/Pickering and minister of citizenship and immigration, likened Mr. Flaherty to a great hockey “coach.”

He mentored younger politicians, picked them up when they felt discouraged, scolded them — “often with nothing more than a look” — when they lost the plot, while acknowledging their good works with a “pat on the back.”

Mr. Flaherty led from the “centre,” said Mr. Alexander, then added — and mostly from “the front.”

Mr. Dolstra, the old friend, remembers that laugh of his. Mr. Flaherty liked a good joke. He loved Canada.

“The country has lost a great man,” Mr. Dolstra says.

A hearse was parked just beyond the doors to the centre. Mr. Flaherty is being honoured with a state funeral at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Toronto at St. James Cathedral.

Among those expected to attend are the prime minister, New Democrat leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. Colin Johnson, Anglican archbishop of Toronto will officiate.